Andrew Ames became the first youngest and smallest person in the world, who was given a revolutionary artificial heart pump implant. The teenager suffered acute heart failure on Christmas Eve last year.

Andrew is a 13 year old boy, born with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, an inherited condition which disturbs the heart's normal rhythm. He was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, in Newcastle's Freeman Hospital. It is a condition which weakens and enlarges the heart, consequently preventing it from working.

Parents gave their nod for fitting him with a HeartWare ventricular device. The tiny but powerful device was fitted on Boxing Day.

These pumps have been implanted into nearly 400 adult heart failure patients across the globe and about 20 at the Freeman. The treatment will benefit other young patients, according to the surgeons at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.

His dad David said, "Getting it at his age makes life a lot easier for him, as he can be at home and does not need the artificial Berlin Heart. The new device is so light that, unlike the Berlin Heart, it allows a patient to return home and carry on with life until a donor can be found".

The HeartWare pump, which costs around £60,000 per implant, is intended to be a "bridge to transplant".